This story is part of Forbes' coverage of Hong Kong’s Richest 2018. See the full coveragehere.

The family of the late Cheng Yu-tung is among the richest in Hong Kong, and it was ranked eighth on Forbes Asia’s list of Asia’s Richest Families in November with a fortune of $22.5 billion. But when the founder of New World Development passed away at age 91 in 2016, the bulk of that wealth appears to have been placed in a family trust. The only member of the family with personal assets valuable enough for a place on Forbes Asia’s list of Hong Kong’s Richest this year is Henry Cheng, 71, who succeeded his father at the top of the family businesses.

The Cheng family fortune stems from the wide-ranging New World conglomerate and Chow Tai Fook, the world’s largest jewelry chain with 2,200 outlets in mainland China alone. It started with a Macau jewelry store where Cheng Yu-tung worked and married the boss’ daughter. However, the biggest piece of Henry Cheng’s $1.3 billion fortune comes from halfway around the world.

London's Greenwich Peninsula

Cheng owns Knight Dragon, master developer for the makeover of London’s Greenwich Peninsula, a former industrial area along a bend in the Thames River surrounding the O2 Arena. The $11.6 billion project encompassing 60 hectares is the largest so-called regeneration project in the U.K. capital and among the largest privately funded projects of its kind in Europe. Over two decades, Greenwich Peninsula is expected to boast 15,720 homes in seven neighborhoods, 24,000 square meters of retail space, 60,000 square meters of business space including a design district, 2.5 kilometers of public riverfront amid 20 hectares of new open space, two schools and a film studio.

Pedestrians walk past construction work on residential flats on the Greenwich Peninsula construction site in London in July 2017. (Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg)

Greenwich Peninsula’s redevelopment had been stalled for nearly a decade until Cheng took a stake in 2012 and bought the remainder a year later. Peninsula Place, the district’s 120,000 square meter centerpiece, comes straight from the Hong Kong property playbook: a shopping mall, offices, housing and performance space above a train and bus station.

Knight Dragon says Cheng gives them a free hand in their operations. That makes sense because he’s got plenty to do at home as chairman and executive director of both New World Development and Chow Tai Fook Jewellery as well as the chairman of several related companies and a director of five private family-investment vehicles named for his father and Chow Tai Fook. Cheng’s brother, Peter Cheng Kar-shing, is among at least eight family members working across the empire. A Cheng representative did not respond to a request for comment.

Expanding casino interests

Expansion of the family’s casino interests globally stands out as hallmark of Cheng’s recent stewardship. Back in 1982, Cheng Yu-tung helped his pal, Stanley Ho, by buying an unwanted partner’s 10% stake in the legendary mogul’s gaming and hospitality vehicle, Socidedade de Tourismo e Diversoes de Macau. Cheng took over his father’s board seat on STDM’s publicly listed casino subsidiary SJM Holdings. Over more than a decade, the family repeatedly failed to acquire casino licenses around Asia and made an unsuccessful $950 million bid for leading Macau VIP gaming promoter Suncity Group.

The family’s luck changed in 2015 when Vietnam greenlighted privately held Chow Tai Fook Enterprises to take a controlling stake in Hoiana, a $4 billion casino resort project with its first phase to open next year. The company was also part of that year’s Destination Brisbane winning bid with Australia’s Echo (now Star) Entertainment and Far East Consortium for a $3 billion casino resort and comprehensive riverfront development in the Queensland capital.

In December 2016, the company hit the jackpot, taking control of Baha Mar, the largest tourism project in the history of the Caribbean and its first opportunity to own and operate a casino resort. The original developer of the $3.5 billion Bahamas complex -- Sarkis Izmirlian -- blamed his China state-owned construction contractor and banker for missing scheduled opening dates, and hoped to ditch them by declaring bankruptcy. But the Bahamas government chose principal project lender China Export-Import Bank as the bankruptcy administrator, and Chow Tai Fook Enterprises was chosen to take over Baha Mar, which had a soft opening last April.

Baha Mar, like the company’s other two multibillion-dollar casino projects, will feature an ultra-luxurious Rosewood Hotel, part of New World Hospitality, where Cheng’s daughter Sonia Cheng is chief executive. With the Chengs, it’s almost always about family.